Mahindra & Mahindra is rumoured to have withdrawn their bid for the British sportscar maker Aston Martin. According to reports, Mahindra’s rival in the bidding war, Investindustrial is likely to ink a deal that will allow it to invest in Aston Martin within the next few days.
Rumours of Aston Martin being put up for sale by its Kuwaiti owner, The Investment Dar (TID), began circulating in the media a month ago. The top contenders for the bid ultimately turned out to be Mahindra and Investindustrial. The current reports suggest that the deal will value the Gaydon based automaker a 2.1 Billion Dollars (including debt) and give Investindustrial a rumoured 37.5 per cent stake in the company.
The reports suggest the tide has swung in favour of Investindustrial as Mahindra is looking for some control and not willing to accept a role of an investor. Also M&M is reluctance to take on Aston Martin’s debt. They also say the company’s management and the other shareholders (Ford, Adeem investments and Rally ace Dave Richards) are favour of Investindustrial due to them bringing Mercedes-Benz on board as a technical partner.
The deal, when signed, will give Aston Martin a huge inflow of cash that it requires to continue research and development of newer models to keep the company afloat. However, till date all the parties involved in the deal have refused to issue any kind of statement in this regard.
